


Just the weekly end of the world

by nabhx



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Creepy The Handler (Umbrella Academy), Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, Ghost David "Dave" Katz, Good Sibling Allison Hargreeves, Good Sibling Number Five | The Boy, Good Sibling Vanya Hargreeves, Hazel living his best life somewhere, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Luther Hargreeves Needs A Hug, M/M, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Powerful Klaus Hargreeves, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tags May Change, Vanya Hargreeves Gets a Hug, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26328748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nabhx/pseuds/nabhx
Summary: The apocalypse was successfully avoided.With their house still standing, nothing kept them from going on with their lives. As Allison began her road to recovery and Vanya her much needed training, everything finally seemed to slip into place.But the Umbrella Academy had always been some sort of danger magnet, so of course the easy life didn't last that long. Unfortunately, this time they didn’t have a long lost sibling fall out of the sky to inform them of the impending doom. But with Vanya in safe hands, what could be the cause this time? Was it finally time to face an enemy or problem outside of the family? Or had Reginald screwed up somewhere once again?Maybe the Commission had been right all along; What’s meant to be is meant to be.((Takes place around season 1))
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz
Comments: 13
Kudos: 160





	1. Can’t just leave her in there

No matter how hard she pounded on the door, how loudly she screamed, her siblings couldn’t hear her.

Vanya felt a sting behind her eyes, all the sobbing began taking its toll on her energy. Both her cheeks and hands felt like they were on fire, but she couldn’t tear herself away from the door. Seeing her family through the dirty window was the only way to know if they had left her.

Her vision was far too blurry to even attempt reading anyone’s lips at this point, not that her pounding headache would’ve allowed it anyway, but still.

“-Even if you’re right, _she_ needs our help,” Diego pointed at the door, “and we can’t do that if she’s locked in a cage.”

“Yeah-” Klaus interjected, “and for all we know, she might be struggling with this new power.” He stepped closer to the door, Vanya was still slamming her hands against the other side. “I mean, it must be scary. _Terrifying_ , really, to discover that you can do something that you never thought you could do.”

Although Diego didn’t say anything; he agreed. It was hard to disagree with such a statement. Imagine Allison not knowing she can rumor people, Five unaware he can teleport, Luther himself with his strength, Klaus seeing dead people. Powers _were_ terrifying. In a way they had been lucky to grow up knowing these things, learning about them. Vanya never had any of that. It wasn’t fair to assume she’d be able to control everything without it.

“Look, if what Pogo told me-”

He clenched his fist the moment Luther opened his mouth, “No, were not doing this.” Moving to open the door, Diego was yanked back by his ape of a brother.

Luther practically threw him away from his position, immediately turning to face him to avoid an attack from behind. “You’re not listening to me!”

“And you’re not listening to us!” Diego spat, not yet making a move to charge the taller man. But he seemed to be charging one up.

Klaus placed his hand on the window. While the other two were bashing it out behind him, he had a few seconds to interact with his little sister. Vanya looked about as miserable as before, her eyes red and puffy, hair a mess. The sooner she was out of that cell, the better. Giving her a hopefully comforting look, Klaus began turning the gear. Immediate regret hit him as he was pulled back as well.

He could practically hear his arms crack, it definitely felt like they did.

Diego took the opportunity to jump Number One, yelling all sorts of profanities at him, no stutter present. It was quite the distraction, for about three seconds. Luther seemed to have no problem throwing Klaus to the side while trying to grab Diego. Well, Klaus’ back did, hitting a wall. Having the wind completely knocked out of him, he didn’t bother getting up yet.

“Klaus-” Ben kneeled down next to him. Having watched the whole thing go down he wasn’t that surprised this was the outcome, but that didn’t make it less upsetting, for multiple reasons. It wasn’t until Klaus gave him a dismissive wave that he backed off a bit.

It didn’t take long for Diego to join Klaus against the wall. Only held up against it by his throat, rather than being flung. Both were equally shitty though.

“We can’t risk letting her out, what if she’d hurt someone?!” Quite the question coming from the man that was beating his siblings up not even a second earlier. It only took one more for Luther to realize as well, dropping Diego in the progress. He coughed roughly, gasping for breath after the fit.

To say Allison was shocked was an understatement. Finally having made her way downstairs, needing the wall to support her every step, this was the last thing she wanted to come across. But all things considered, she came at the right time. With Luther standing in the middle of the room, seemingly having some sort of breakdown, both Klaus and Diego positioned against the wall, their breathing sounding raspy, and Vanya tiredly banging on the metal door-

At this point it wasn’t even the messiest moment the family had experienced these last few days, which would have been very worrying for the average household, but not for them. Allison tightened her grip on the notepad, scribbling her message.

_‘LET HER GO’_

Luther turned towards her, “You know I can’t do that.. She _hurt_ you.” It honestly sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else at this point. “..You should go back upstairs and rest.”

She shook her head. Removing herself from the wall she had still been using, Number Three stepped towards Luther, grabbing his arm and squeezing it slightly.

“Please just-” He cut himself off, taking the time to look at his siblings. What kind of leader was he? Beating up his siblings for not following him, it was unacceptable and pathetic. All kinds of thoughts forced their way into his mind, leaving Luther embarrassed, dizzy even.

Seeing no immediate solution that wouldn’t make him look even stupider, Luther stormed off.

Allison would’ve gone after him if it wasn’t for Vanya still being locked up. Relieve seemed to wash over her as she saw Allison move towards the door, smiling warmly. Vanya even managed to smile herself once she actually heard her sister open it. What followed was a tight hug and numerous apologies, ranging from cries to whispers and somehow back to screaming. Allison didn’t mind though. She was able to hold her sister, that was all she cared about.

It only took a minute for the hug to become a group hug. Sort of. Klaus had just decided to join in, after clumsily getting to his feet, that is. Not Diego though, he just stood there, watching intensely. But it was a nice moment, a few minutes to just breathe together.

-

“Need anything else for now?” Klaus asked Vanya as he sat down next to her on the couch.

She had been set up with a blanket and some tea, Allison occupying her other side. “..I’m good.” They decided to give her a few more minutes before discussing their next move, possibly a few more _hours_ , honestly.

Allison scribbled something on the notepad, showing it to Vanya once she was finished. _‘HOW’S YOUR HEADACHE?’_

“Better now, I think..” She smiled. Of course there was still some discomfort, but the fact that she was currently situated in the living room instead of a soundproof cell sure helped a lot.

“This might be a bad time, but I just wanted to say I really like your hair when it’s down.”

The comment got a subtle chuckle out of Vanya, although it was definitely one of the last things she had expected to hear right now, it was appreciated. “Thank you, Klaus.” Shortly after the words left her mouth she felt his hand around her wrist, both of her wrists, actually.

Allison and Klaus had moved closer to her, forcing her into some sort of hug. Well, it was more of a cuddle. But Vanya wasn’t about to start complaining. On the contrary;

“..Thank you.”


	2. Take a breather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just like to mention real quick that I didn't expect as much support so early on, this is one of my first fics on this site and I'm glad some are taking interest. :)

“So, where have _you_ been?”

About half an hour after the incident, everyone had occupied themselves with something. Diego had decided on being bitter in the kitchen, holding a heating pad against his shoulder. Grace had warmed it up for him when she saw him enter, she didn’t need to do a full checkup to know he wasn’t seriously injured.

Five, who blinked in about a minute ago, stopped in his tracks. “Had some business to take care of. Guessing by your tone, I’d say I missed out on something.” It was more of an observation than an invitation to converse, but Diego talked on anyway as he stood up and his brows furrowed.

“Yeah, well you guessed right. Luther threw a fit.” The sudden movement caused his shoulder to ache, but he didn’t show nor mention it.

“Was it about the moon?”

“Not even.”

“Huh..” Five thought for a moment, “That’s a first.”

Diego didn’t bother responding to his comment. “Fucker choked me out, threw Klaus, then made a run for it.” Five’s _physical_ disinterest didn’t seem to phase Diego as he continued. “Not to mention all that bullshit about Vanya having powers-”

This caught Five’s attention though . “Powers?”

“Yeah, he claimed she had them, locked her up downstairs in this weird soundproof cell. Didn’t even know we had it.”

Thinking back to the time he first saw the rubble that could’ve been the academy, Five tried to remember if he saw any underground prison cells, but no. “..Me neither.. Is she still down there?”

“No, we got her out. For the low price of breaking our fucking ribs.” Diego practically spat the last part, obviously still mad about it.

“Yeah, yeah-” Five pushed passed him, getting a grunt out of his brother. “What about the power thing? Are you just going to skip that part?”

“There’s nothing to go off of. Does it matter?”

“Where. is. she. now?”

-

Now sitting on the floor, Klaus looked up at Allison who was holding a sleeping Vanya. “So it’s true? That she has.. Y’know..”

Allison just nodded, since she wasn’t able to reach for the notepad.

“Does that.. Did she-” He moved a finger across his throat, “To you..?” After another, although subtle, nod, Klaus continued. “..Jenkins too then, right?”

Her expression changed. Of course, she hadn’t been there. Did they forget to get her up to speed? Typical, honestly.

“Oh yeah, no, we found him earlier.” He sat up straight, emoting with his hands as he spoke, “Basically a knife holder at that point though, it was pretty bad. Blood everywhere, Diego almost threw up but you didn’t get that from me.”

Allison looked down at her sleeping sister and gently rubbed her back. Harold had deserved it, but that didn’t make the mental image of Vanya mutilating a man any less unnerving. For now confronting or blaming her would help absolutely nobody, so Allison decided that she’d continue to be a source of comfort instead.

Five blinked inside of the room, closely followed by Diego who just used the door.

As Five was about to open his mouth, he noticed Vanya sleeping. “..She okay?” His volume was just above a whisper. A firm nod from Allison was all the confirmation he needed. “I should probably be asking _you_ about Vanya’s powers, but seeing as how you can’t speak-”

“Can’t she just write it down?” Diego asked, receiving a sigh from Five.

“I’m not going to wait around for her to write me a damn book.”

Pogo cleared his throat as he entered the room, making all the heads turn towards him. “Then allow me to give you a summary.”

Everyone went quiet.

“Miss Vanya does indeed possess a power of sorts, quite a strong one, actually.” He paused, seemingly trying to think about the best way to formulate the next part of his explanation. “Your father did know, but decided to.. repress it, for lack of a better term.”

Five’s brows furrowed slightly. “How is that even possible?”

“Her medication?” Diego muttered under his breath, it was more of a realization than a question for Pogo. But he nodded anyway.

Silence filled the room once again, you could practically hear the gears in their heads turning as each of them went through their own thought process. Allison had already been made aware of all of it, so she opted to watch her siblings, studying their expressions. They didn’t give a severe enough reaction for her to worry in any way.

“Is there any research on it?” Five was the first to speak up.

“There was only one book documenting miss Vanya’s abilities, but I’m afraid it was lost due to _unforeseen circumstances_.” His gaze shifted towards Klaus, followed by everyone else.

“In my defense-” Klaus held up his hands, “I _did_ go looking for it, actually.”

“For about three minutes.” Ben rolled his eyes. Having been there at the time, he could put in his two cents.

“Shut up.” Klaus shamelessly told the empty spot in the room aka his dead brother, earning him an eye roll from his living siblings. “But hey- What if that Peeman had it?”

“Peabody? You mean Jenkins?” Diego questioned, “Why would he have it?”

“It would explain some things.” Five said before walking to the door. “I’ll go look for it.”

“On your own? What if the police-” When they left earlier Harold’s body hadn’t been found by the autorites yet, but that could easily be different now. A thirteen year old walking around a crime scene would be extremely shady at best, not even taking into consideration he put his fingers in the eye socket of the dead man in question. Five was the last person to care about something like that though.

“I doubt they’d take a random book with them as evidence.” Without another word, or waiting for anyone to respond, Five blinked away.

Diego sighed, then looked over at Pogo. “Got anything else to say?”

“Your father had his reasons-” He began, but Diego didn’t let him finish. No surprise there, of course trying to excuse Reginald’s behavior at this point in time was far from appropriate.

“Literally anything else?”

With an apologetic look, Pogo bowed his head. “..No, I suppose not.”

“We’re done here then.” Diego huffed as he crossed his arms. Of course their father would do something like this. Even if he had the best and most logical reason in the whole fucking universe, his decision was still garbage, just because it was his.

-

Having left Vanya under Klaus and Diego’s protection for the time being, Allison had made her way upstairs. Now, this could definitely come back to bite her in the ass, but at the time she felt confident enough in them to look after their sister, somehow.

Allison knocked on the door, only to enter the room without waiting for an answer. Rude, perhaps. But she would’ve entered even if he had told her no. It felt wrong not to check up on Luther, even if he acted harshly before.

“Not now..” The tall male spoke softly, after hearing the guest enter he turned to face her, “..Allison.” Out of all the people it could’ve been, he was pretty glad it was her.

She gave him a small smile, then proceeded to write on the notepad she had brought with her. _‘NEED ANYTHING?’_

His expression shifted to one of confusion. “How can you even stand to be in the same room as me after what I did down there?”

Allison had to hold back a snort, not even to spare Luther’s feelings in any way, it just hurt her throat. He always had a way of making things so dramatic. _‘EVERYONE IS OK’_

“But they’re mad at me, right? They have every right to be, they _should_ be-” His mouth was covered by Allison’s hand, preventing him from continuing.

Good thing she already had her message ready. _‘GO TALK TO THEM’_ After she was sure he read it, she removed her hand.

A sad, yet obviously nervous look was all she got in response.

-

“You _did_ kill him though, right?”

Vanya twirled her hair around her finger and avoided eye contact, unsurprisingly not ready to discuss the subject yet. Waking up from her nap without Allison nearby was stressful enough, Diego really didn’t have to add onto that. But of course he did anyway. “Do we have to talk about this now..?”

“We don’t, actually.” Klaus revealed as he reentered the living room, now holding a cup of tea, presumably Vanya’s refill. After handing it to Vanya he sat back down next to her. “How about we wait till Five gets back? Serious talk time isn’t for another hour, _at least_.”

“No. You’re not invited to serious talk time.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not invited to our next tea party.” The fake hurt expression and his exaggerated whiny tone really sold the message.

Ben snorted in the background, his reaction being heard by nobody other than Klaus, as always. “Uninvite me too while you’re at it. Your tea is kind of gross.”

Klaus turned his head towards the chair his brother was sitting in. “How would you know, you’re dead.”

Ben was about to respond when he noticed the other’s expressions, complete confusion. It caused his own expression to soften slightly, sometimes messing with Klaus was pretty funny, but it felt different when they were with the family. Like, judgment, rather than the quick laugh strangers on the street would give him. You’d think people that _knew_ Klaus could communicate with the dead wouldn’t be as affected by it, which got Ben thinking. To save his brother from the glances, Ben stood up and motioned for Klaus to follow him out of the room to continue their conversation elsewhere.

He did follow, not bothering to give Vanya and Diego a reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when I said I'd make this chapter longer- It is longer, don't get me wrong, but I really wanna throw out big chapters. Going from 1200 to 40000 would be a bit drastic, so I'll try to build up to it. Hope that's okay with everyone.


	3. Number Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for disappearing like I did- School is just really screwing me over and keeping me from a consistent update schedule, I'll try to make up for it by making the chapters longer. Thanks to everyone who's sticking around, I really appreciate it.

Luther stopped right outside the door to the living room, hesitating to open the door. He hadn’t seen anyone other than Allison since his outburst. Now, Diego was probably angry, Klaus not as much, but Vanya.. She could be anywhere between livid and mildly upset, the former felt more likely though.

After picking up on his discomfort, Allison gently squeezed his arm to show her support, giving Luther the little push he needed to enter.

Diego was immediately on edge, as was Vanya. Her breathing got fast and shaky. Diego wasted no time pulling out a knife, he wasn’t the closest with Vanya himself, but if she got too upset she could level the whole house. Something he wanted to avoid, obviously.

“What are you doing here?” His gaze pierced right through Luther, as if it was sharper than the literal weapon he was holding.

Luther cleared his throat. “Well, I uh.. I still live here.?” A pathetic attempt at getting rid of some of the tension, Diego didn’t look any calmer, Vanya was almost hyperventilating. “Listen, I-”

Luther had taken a step towards them, the sounds Vanya was making told Diego enough. “Back off.” He spat at the taller male, now holding the knife like he was ready to launch it. “I’m not telling you again.”

“I need to apologize to Vanya!”

_A crack appeared on a vase nearby, going unnoticed by everyone._

“You need to fuck off, is what you need to do!”

Allison stepped between the two shouting men, trying to separate them. Diego could easily curve the knife around here, but that didn’t really cross her mind at the time.

“I’m trying to make things right!”

_The crack got deeper and larger as the yelling continued._

“It’s too late for that!”

Vanya’s pained breathing had transitioned to full on sobbing, unfortunately overshadowed by her brothers. Like always. She had curled up in the corner of the couch, holding her legs to her chest.

“That’s not for you to decide!”

_The vase wouldn’t hold out for much longer, it’d take one more drop for it to-_

Vanya covered her ears as a loud sob escaped her, finally overpowering her loud siblings. Her skin went pale as the screaming bounced around in her head. The three looked at her, eyes widening. The change in her appearance was enough to silence them.

They definitely weren’t expecting the vase to explode loudly.

-

“I can’t just drop your name like that-” Klaus passed around his room, hands in his hair. “You know they get upset if I can’t prove it’s you! Another cry for attention or something, I don’t know..”

“Why can’t you just repeat something from me to them? Like something only I would say?” Ben looked hopeful, sitting on Klaus’ bed.

Klaus sighed loudly as he turned his head towards Ben. “They wouldn’t take me seriously! If anything, they’d think I’m messing with them even more!”

Ben paused, trying really hard to come up with a counterargument. It was true, and it was horrible. There had to be a way to convince the family Klaus’ powers were back, they just had to find it. “You told them you’re sober right?”

“Yeah, but they brushed it off.” Klaus visibly deflated, not comfortable with the way they had reacted at the time. “Wouldn’t be surprised if they placed their bets on how long I’ll keep it up.”

Ben stood up and stepped closer to his brother. “They wouldn’t do that, Klaus. They care about you.” Seeing his expression drop even more, Number Six spoke again. “Listen, I punched you once and I’ll do it again. You’re making progress already, and it’s only been a few days! If you keep this up and practice-”

“Hey, hey, go back for a second. You’re not just saying this because you want to be seen, right?”

Ben felt his stomach drop at the accusation. “No. Of course not! Klaus, I want to help you! I want you to _succeed_! You have no idea how happy you being sober makes me, how happy it makes _everyone_.” He tried placing his hand on Klaus’ shoulder, a smile appearing on his face when it didn’t sink through.

Klaus shuddered, a cold feeling seeping right through his clothing. The chill running down his spine didn’t manage to ruin the moment, thankfully. “We have plenty of time to practice for the big reveal, we’re kinda busy with Vanya right now anyway. Don’t want to occupy any of her training time, y’know?”

As the sentence left his mouth, a loud noise erupted from downstairs.

-

Sharp pieces of decorative piece had been launched everywhere, but it didn’t manage to destroy anything else. No, most of them were caught by Diego, Luther and Allison who had been forced to the ground after the initial blow. It had been loud enough to send vibrations through the whole house, the three of them should consider themselves lucky they were left with just cuts and some temporary ringing.

Luther groaned as he stood up. His shoulders were cut up from the shards, leaving his clothes with some rips and a bit of blood here and there. “..Everyone okay?” His own voice sounded distant to him so he wondered if the others had even heard what he said. Allison couldn't verbally respond and Diego might've been ignoring him, so no solid answer there. 

The moment Allison got to her feet she stumbled her way over to the couch to check on Vanya, her skin had returned to its regular shade but she was unconscious once again. Other than that she seemed to be fine, Allison had decided that after checking her pulse. Then the pain set in. Moving as fast as she had, the cuts on her arms began burning. But once again Vanya took priority.

“Are we not going to talk about what just happened?” Another attempt at a conversation on Luther’s part.

Diego’s finger dug around his ear, as if it would magically fix the ringing. Unfortunately for Luther the noise didn’t keep him from snapping at his brother. “I’d actually prefer it if you kept your mouth shut.”

Before another argument could transpire, Five appeared in the middle of the room. He held a book under his arm, completely unbothered by his shaken siblings. Before he could speak though, Klaus loudly bursted into the room, holding a fire extinguisher. Five considered this helpful, in a way. “Good. You’re all here.”

“Where do you keep getting those?” Diego questioned, referring to Klaus’ possible extinguisher collection. He didn’t really get an answer.

“So the book was left in the house, no surprise there.” Five began, “Now let's make sure we don't lose it again. Not before we got the information we need.”

Luther cleared his throat to get Five’s attention. “Should Vanya be asleep while we discuss this?”

“Don't know, promise you won’t lock her in the basement again if we wake her up?” He squinted his eyes at Luther. It seemed like he couldn’t escape the incident anywhere. Granted, it happened a few hours ago.

They didn’t have to discuss it further though, as Vanya woke up a mere four seconds after Five had spoken. Her eyes going big as she remembered what had just happened, she wasn't sure if she was supposed to apologize, couldn't hurt to try. But with all eyes on her she just froze, they were bleeding, they looked shocked. Vanya opened her mouth but no sound came out. Allison was at her side, trying to calm her down, but being nonverbal did lower the overall effectiveness of her attempt. As much as Vanya hated it, she began crying again. The constant meltdowns were bringing back the headache she just got rid of.

Five’s expression shifted between confusion and worry. “Vanya, I’m going to need you to calm down, okay? There’s some stuff we have to talk about.” He showed her the book, ready to put it away in case she’d react badly. “You might not like it, but this is going to help us.”

Having only read a few sentences herself, Vanya didn’t get as stressed about it. Of course the fresh memories with Leonard came back up, but overall she was fine. “..What do you need it for.?”

“Well, looking at all of this-” Five opened the book. “The short practice you’ve had is all written down here, we can see where it went wrong, improve on that.”

“I was a _kid_. Of course it went wrong.” Despite her lack of energy, Vanya’s comment was filled with anger.

Diego rolled his eyes though, finding her statement stupid, to put it bluntly. Being a kid wasn’t a good excuse to him. “We were _all_ kids, and we did just fine.”

“Speak for yourself..” Their only recently self declared, ex drug addicted brother argued.

“Doesn’t matter. Vanya is a lot more powerful than any of us, it’s not the same thing.” Five silenced all of them. “The point is, we need to pick your training back up. Whenever you’re ready, but preferably soon. Unless you’re okay with staying on medication until then.”

“No, no- I don’t mind starting with any kind of training.” The thought of taking her pills again was enough to get Vanya fully motivated, as weird as training felt to her.

Five gave her a firm nod. “Good. I’ll be reading up on this to find what we can start with, don’t break anything till I come find you.”

The blink that followed was the only confirmation they needed that the conversation was basically over. Diego exited the room almost immediately after, having heard more than enough himself. The remaining group stood there in silence for a while.

“So..” Klaus began. “Our Vanny is going to be one of us, yay!” His comment was accompanied by a little jump and some clapping, plus a sigh from Ben.

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, you heard what Five said; it’s different.” Vanya remarked. “Besides, the whole Umbrella thing was kinda ridiculous anyway..” Out of all the nasty things she could’ve responded with, the group was surprised by how calm she was.

“Yeah, but now we can be ridiculous _as a family_.” The last part of his sentence came with a fake tear and everything, but he wasn’t finished yet. “We can even get you your own suit! Diego would love to get back in his, I’m sure.” He turned towards Luther. “You might have to.. Suck it in a bit.. But you’ll be fine too!”

“Klaus, are you done?” Luther asked, an unamused look in his eyes.

“Oh, come on! Imagine, all seven of us-” The glances Klaus received were enough to make him backtrack a bit. “Six of us.. I meant six.” He did, in fact, _not_ mean six. But that was for him and Ben to know, for now.

“You mind leaving now? I’d still like to talk with Vanya.”

“And does Vanya want to talk with you?” Klaus leaned to the side so he could see Vanya past Luther. Not that he could take the big guy on. but he’d try if he had to. Again.

She nodded reassuringly. “It’s alright..”

-

Five was fully emerged in his father’s book. It was honestly really interesting to see what he wrote down all those years ago, plus all of the information on his siblings he had missed out on himself. It was painfully obvious that Luther was the star though, nothing but praise in his chapters. God, there were even parts about Ben. No surprise, but it _did_ hit just a little bit. Also distracted him from what he was supposed to be looking for, this was still about Vanya. He’d have time to reminisce later.

Quickly scanning through every page, looking through everything that involved Vanya, proved to be an exhausting task. For someone who only got training up until she was four, there was a lot of information on her. Yet it still felt like their father barely understood her power, or at least he couldn’t write it down properly. Repeating things like ‘extremely unstable’ and ‘total disaster’ were quite discouraging, but Five wasn’t about to give up now. They all owed this to her.

Apparently her powers were simply turning sound into some sort of energy, a very destructive energy. But Five didn’t think that sounded uncontrollable at all. The problem was the training. What could he possibly offer her, having nothing even close to her power type.. This was going to be a long night for sure, if only the house had some decent coffee.

Five did end up sending Diego out to some random late night coffee shop for some caffeine, which his brother reluctantly agreed to. He entered Five’s bedroom, holding a plastic bag and holding it out for him.

“You owe me five bucks.” Diego muttered as Five took the bag.

He smirked in response. “Only five? What a steal.”

“I’ll add ten because it’s cold outside.”

“Ask mom to make you a scarf while you cry about it.” Five finally took a sip of his hot brew, it really managed to knock all the tired right out of him. It was the first time he got anything from that particular coffee shop, more of a last resort since everything else was closed, but perhaps he should write it down somewhere.

Diego stared at him as he seemingly entered caffeine heaven, his eyes then shifted down towards the open book. He hadn’t really seen it since he was a child, and those memories were still a blur. “How much does it say.”

“About what?”

“Everything. All of us.”

“A lot.”

He thought about his next words carefully, not wanting to seem desperate or anything. “Can I borrow it some time?”

Five stayed silent for a moment before looking him in the eyes. “I can understand why you’d want to, but not until the whole Vanya situation has died down, okay? Still lots of things to read through.”

Diego was fine with this answer, it was understandable, yet not condescending. He was honestly just glad Five didn’t judge him for it, considering how good he is at it. But from there the conversation was pretty much over again, long conversations between them were turning out to be rare. Diego wouldn’t consider himself a talker anyway, so he’d leave Five be for the rest of the night.


	4. The sober buddies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hello, here I am once again- So I was thinking maybe I should attempt to update somewhere every 2 weeks. Like I missed the update day this time, so maybe not exactly 2 weeks. But that's something I'm hoping to get better at, which hopefully happens somewhere after the 17th since I'll finish up the last of school stuff. Please bear with me until then.

“I don’t think this is such a good idea.” Ben sighed as his brother sneaked through the quiet halls of the house. The sun hit the building from an angle, making it look almost cozy.

Klaus had been up since three in the morning, a recurring thing. Total coincidence though, according to him. “You never think any of my ideas are good.” Usually it didn’t really matter how early he woke up, considering his sleeping schedule was trash anyway. But his plan for this morning had kept him jumpy for hours, wishing he’d been able to sleep until it was time.

“Because they’re not.” Ben had been forced to listen to his rambling all morning, he still didn’t support it. Trying to stop Klaus though, exhausting even for a dead man.

“Will you just _shush_ -”

“It’s not like they can hear _me_.”

“Not _yet_ , but shut up, seriously..” The two of them had finally reached the door to Allison’s bedroom, knowing Vanya had been allowed to sleep in there, to Luther’s surprise. But Klaus had no idea if both of his sisters were in there right now, so this could get awkward.

Slowly Klaus opened the door, which creaked loudly. Damn those old hinges, he cringed as he pushed it open just a bit more and peered inside. Ben sighed and looked the other way, not wanting to see his brother embarrass himself this early in the morning. The curtains were no help in keeping that comfy sunrise light out, just like the hallway earlier. In the bed appeared to be two shapes, presumably Vanya and Allison. Fortunately Klaus’ entrance hadn’t disturbed them. Time to change that though.

“..Vanny, hey.. Get up.” He kneeled down next to her, good thing she was laying on the bedside closest to the door. “Wakey wakey, time to get _productive_..”

Although her brother’s voice was barely above a whisper, it still caused Vanya to stir slightly.

Klaus considered this an invitation to keep going. “That’s right, sleepy time is over. We have to go.” He proceeded to brush some hair out of her face. His expression shifted into a smile as he noticed how warm she was now, compared to her icy temperature yesterday.

“..Go where.?” Vanya’s voice sounded groggy and like she was half asleep still, but nonetheless she sat up a bit.

Klaus’ smile widened. “Morning, you..” He quickly looked over at Allison before continuing. “Come on, we’re getting breakfast.” His plan all along, stealing his sister and grabbing a bite with her. He wasn’t sure if that was allowed at this point, and judging by _her_ expression, she didn’t know either.

She yawned before getting to her feet in a wobbly manner. “..What time is it?”

“Like six in the morning, I don’t know? It’s early enough for breakfast.”

-

Despite the bright sun, it was actually quite cold. Vanya hadn’t brought a jacket so Klaus stole one from Diego for her, which looked silly considering the height difference. The two continued walking down the street, Klaus visibly excited.

“I’m still not sure this is such a good idea.. Five asked me to stay at least near the house. What if something happens? Or if they come looking for me? We could get into serious trouble for this.” She asked as she buried her hands in the pockets of the jacket.

Klaus put his arm around her. “Let’s not worry about that, okay? If anyone’s in trouble, it’s probably me. Besides, we’re already out.. Unless you want to go back?”

Vanya seemed to consider it for a moment, her brows furrowing. She let out a defeated sigh. “No, I guess not.. Just keep an eye on me, okay.?”

“Yeah, of course. No problem.” He tried to reassure her. “Nothing is going to happen, don’t even worry about it.”

“You don’t know that though..” Ben sighed, walking behind the two as they discussed this was pretty boring. Going back and forth since they left the house, it was getting pretty old, especially when he had already made his own opinions known. Meaning it was technically two versus one here, but nobody cared about that. “Which is why, again, I think this is a bad idea.”

Since Ben had been surprisingly quiet for a while, Klaus noticeably flinched, but he quickly composed himself. “ _Correction_ , I’m not going to _let_ anything happen. I’ll.. Stop it, or something.”

“You can’t promise her that, please just go home.”

Vanya seemed to find it funny though, she let out a small chuckle. “Okay, got it.”

After a few more minutes of talking they reached a restaurant, actually known for their early bird breakfast specials. A recommendation from Klaus, due to how affordable it was combined with the cozy atmosphere and laidback staff. Vanya had no preference so she didn’t complain about his choice.

Klaus opened the door for her, but didn’t follow her in yet. “Can you grab a table? I’ll be there in a minute, just need to do something.”

“Okay, sure.” She nodded.

Now Klaus was alone, alone with Ben, he turned to him. “Do you _mind_?”

“Yes, I do. I already told you I do.” Ben looked at his brother like a disappointed parent, the fact he had his arms crossed only added to it.

Klaus huffed and stood up straight. “Listen.. Vanya _needs_ this. She’s stressed out, alright? I just want her to be able to destress a bit, spend some time with my little sister..”

“I get that, but you have to keep in mind that Vanya’s.. Untrained. What if she panics and blows something up? What then, Klaus? How are you planning on stopping that?”

“I’ll see when we get there.. Which we won’t, just letting you know.”

“Yeah? What’s gonna guarantee that?”

“Can’t hear you over how badly I want breakfast, bye now.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Real mature..”

“I said bye.” Ignoring all the weird glances from onlookers, Klaus entered the restaurant to join his sister. It wasn’t like their family would be looking for her anytime soon, it was way too early for anyone to be awake, so that didn’t feel like a problem yet.

-

“How the hell did you lose her? She slept in the same room as you?!”

Diego received a tired eye roll, it was definitely still too early to hear him screaming, even though his reason was valid. Allison began scribbling down on her notepad while suppressing a yawn. _‘SHE COULDN’T HAVE GONE FAR’_

“Wrong. We don’t know when she left and we don’t know how fast she can travel. In other words, we’re fucked. Okay?” He stopped his passing to bent towards her in a degrading manner.

Unapproving of both the action and his tone, Allison hit him with the notepad. He narrowed his eyes in response and rubbed the place where he had been hit. _‘SO ARE WE GOING TO LOOK FOR HER OR NOT?’_

“Obviously! Can’t have Five know you lost her. Because I didn’t, I have nothing to do with this. I’m helping you out here, you’re welcome.”

She got up from her seat and punched her brother’s shoulder jokingly.

Unfortunately for Diego, Luther caught them in the kitchen right as they were about to leave. “Hey, where are you guys going?” He asked them.

Diego shot him down immediately. “No.” Allison elbowed him though, forcing him to continue. “Fine, Vanya’s gone. We’re going out to look for her.”

“That’s weird.. I was just out for a run, I should’ve seen her leave.” Luther thought for a moment before continuing. “Hey, what if she’s-”

Diego crossed his arms. “No, you can’t come with us.”

“Why not? I can help.” Luther offered, receiving a supportive nod from Allison.

“We got this, I don’t want or need your help.” Diego narrowed his eyes.

Allison gave him an offended glance and began scribbling, a quick scribble. _‘I DO’_ She proceeded to tap the marker on the notepad repeatedly.

Luther didn’t give her a reaction though. “What do I have to do for you to stop being angry with me all the time? I already talked with Vanya, what do you have to be mad about at this point?”

“I’m not mad about anything, I just don’t like you.” He looked Luther up and down. “We’ve been over this before, right?”

Being done with her brothers bickering while her sister was out there, she stood on Diego’s foot. She probably would’ve done it differently if she was still able to speak, but she’d be lying if she said it wasn’t satisfactory in any way. It did the trick though, their conversation came to an abrupt stop, Diego practically fuming. _‘WE’RE ALL GOING, NOW’_

-

“-And that’s why I don’t recommend snorting grated cheese.” Klaus declared confidently before taking a sip of orange juice. Ben, who sat in the pulled up chair next to him, made a disgusted noise.

Vanya’s expression was filled with confusion. “I mean, I wasn’t planning on it.. But thanks?” She poked the remains of her breakfast with her fork while glancing at the untouched plate placed in front of the seemingly empty chair. “Hey, I was wondering, why do you keep doing that?”

At first Klaus was genuinely clueless as to what his sister was referring to, but seeing her point towards Ben cleared it up. The dumbfounded reaction didn’t go anywhere though, much to Ben’s dismay. “Doing what?”

“I don’t know.. It’s just.. Now that we’ve hung out again I’ve just noticed you always pull up an extra chair at tables, get an extra drink, sometimes even a meal.. Why do you do that? I can’t remember if that’s something you did before.”

This left him speechless for a moment. Hearing it out loud, he really did look crazy.

It didn’t take long for Ben to pick up on Klaus’ inner monologue, he had seen the expression often enough to recognize it. “Go on..” He whispered encouragingly. “Just explain it, she won’t mind. I’m sure she’ll listen.”

“Oh, you know.. A ghost thing..” Accompanied by an awkward laugh and a shrug, Klaus figured he gave her enough information. Her expression told him otherwise, as did Ben’s.

“I thought those disappeared when you.. used something.?” Vanya asked him carefully, not wanting to upset him. She studied the way his expression would shift subtly, in hopes of understanding what he was thinking.

“Well, this one has always been..” He turned to his brother, whose brows rose slightly. “Very persistent.. Even when I was completely stoned, he was still there.. I couldn’t hear him.. And he looked kinda blurry to me.. But he was there..” His expression softened as he turned back to Vanya. “And he’s getting really loud and clear looking now that I’m.. Sober.”

“You’re sober? Are you staying sober?” She smiled, her tone filled interest and some sort of support. “That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you!”

She was far too supportive and kind for Klaus to know how to respond to it, and dropping the Ben bomb felt like pushing his luck, his brain had to work hard to keep the conversation going. “..I guess, in a way, you’re sober now too, hm?” He questioned.

“Oh-” Her eyes widened a bit. “Can it.. be compared? I mean, I guess it was both some sort of power blocking medication.. So, I think so? But it wasn’t nearly as hard for me to quit, you deserve more credit for it.” Vanya laughed sheepishly.

“You’ve been on them for way longer than me though! We’re like, _sober buddies_. Going through it together!”

“That’d be nice, actually.. Have your powers been returning all at once.?”

“I’m not sure.. I just know Be- _THE GHOST_ , he’s becoming more interactive with the uhh, living world.” A quick side glance to Ben told him enough, he almost got a dead heart attack at the accidental drop as well, but in an excited way.

Vanya almost caught on, but the whole ‘becoming more interactive’ thing caught her attention. “Interactive? In what way?”

“Oh! Watch-”

Getting a firm nod from Klaus, Ben rubbed his hands together, preparing for the hopefully not underwhelming trick. He then proceeded to poke Klaus’ arm, creating a visible dent. Klaus himself shivered noticeably as well, plus getting some goosebumps. But it didn’t keep Vanya from spotting the dent, her eyes widened.

“That’s.. Woah..” In all honesty Vanya found it kind of terrifying, crazy to think removing the visible finger was enough to change the whole vibe of something as simple as getting poked. “..Does that hurt.?”

“What? Oh, no!” Klaus swatted Ben’s hand away. “It’s just really cold, nothing to worry about.” He smiled and rubbed his arm to warm it back up. “We’re practising some things, like touching objects, other people, you know.”

“But.. If your current ghost can touch _you_.. What about other ghosts.?”

The question managed to drain all of the color from Klaus’ face. That had been one of his fears when it came to evolving his powers, the other ghosts. Not all of them were violent, of course, but a lot of them looked like it, or just looked gross. “Hasn’t happened yet, guess I’m just hoping it won’t?”

“..I guess that makes sense. Sorry for bringing it up.”

“No! It’s okay, a very valid question. I actually have no idea where the other ghosts are, they’ve only bothered my while I try to sleep so far.”

-

“Can’t believe she took my jacket.” Diego grumbled, hands stuffed into his pockets. It had warmed up a bit outside, but with both of his siblings wearing a jacket, he almost felt a little colder.

Luther smirked. Knowing his brother, sometimes he just ran outside in that stupid suit of his, so why would he be complaining about his jacket now. “Were you planning on wearing it?”

“Maybe? Doesn’t mean she can just steal it like that.”

“I’m sure she’ll give it back when we find her.”

“What if she doesn’t want to be found? Wouldn’t be surprised if she actually just decided she wanted to move out again after the shit you pulled.”

“I already told you I talked to her about it, don’t get involved again, I mean it.”

_‘WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP? THIS ISN’T ABOUT EITHER OF YOU’_ Allison practically shoved the notepad in their faces and narrowed her eyes, this conversation had been going on for about thirty minutes, somehow. Needless to say, her patience was wearing thin.

“We’ve been walking around the damn city without a single clue for over an hour, what do you want us to do?” Diego shrugged, it really did feel like some sort of treasure hunt without a map or stupid riddle. “Why don’t we have phones like normal people? Would make this so much easier..”

“Well, I didn’t have one since I only talked with everyone in the house, plus you don’t really need one on the moon-” Luther cringed at himself while mentioning it, he continued quickly. “Klaus probably sold his for drugs, if he ever got one to begin with.”

_‘I LOST MINE RECENTLY’_ Allison scribbled down.

“Right. Not sure why Vanya doesn’t have one, which leaves you.”

“Yeah? Mind your business.” Diego turned around and began walking away, officially leaving the topic for the moment. “Weren’t we doing something important?”

“ _We_ were. Not sure what you were doing.”

“Shut up.”

-

Vanya stirred her spoon around the fresh cup of coffee a waitress just handed to her, her second one, but blame the stress she’d been put through as of late. She looked at her brother, who was now playing with one of the previously untouched waffles. “..I feel like it’s kinda rude to keep calling your ghost, well, _ghost_ , with him being here all the time.. Does he have a name?”

“Generally speaking, most people have names. Being dead doesn’t really change that.” Ben slapped Klaus’ shoulder, his eyes wide, he didn’t have to say what he was thinking. Klaus sighed and looked at his sister again. “Alright, fine- Vanya, listen. I need you to not freak out, okay? Can you do that for me?”

She was honestly a little taken aback by his response and dropped her spoon. “That depends on how bad it is?”

“Like, _‘if you don’t believe me you might get very upset’_ kind of bad.” He looked down and began fidgeting with a napkin, practically feeling Ben’s gaze burn holes into him.

“Why wouldn’t I believe you? You can see the dead, that’s your power.”

Ben’s cheeks began feeling tired from the huge smile on his face. This was it, he wouldn’t be ignored anymore, not by everyone but Klaus. Not that Klaus didn’t ignore him every so often- God, this felt amazing. Now if only his brother would go through with it, everything would be so different. “..Keep going, please.”

“Where to start..” Klaus exhaled loudly. It felt like even saying his name could cause a whole bunch of problems, as if he was way more aware of the effect Vanya’s strong emotions had on everything.

Once again Ben recognized his brother’s thought process. “Now you decide to grow a damn conscience? Seriously? Only upfront with Vanya when it conveniences you? Is that how it is?”

Even though Vanya was now aware there was a presence and he could openly talk to his brother, doing so felt wrong and awkward. “..No, that’s not it.”

“You’re being selfish.”

Klaus rubbed his temples tiredly, a headache slowly starting to form behind his eyes. “Can you please shut up, just for a second..”

Vanya looked at him, only being able to follow one side of the conversation really put her at a disadvantage. “Are you okay.?” She really tried to soften her tone as much as possible, since she had no idea what was actually happening or what she could do.

“No, you’re keeping her from me. And what for? Why are you doing this to me again?!” Ben stood up, sending the chair backwards and onto the floor. All the staff and few other customers in the restaurant turned towards them, noticing the commotion.

All three froze after they realized what had happened, Vanya more just scared by the sudden noise than the shock her brothers were experiencing. Klaus stood up, reaching out to shake Ben's shoulders, it took him quite a bit of effort to begin speaking. “Did you.. Did you actually just..”

All the anger Ben felt prior to standing up had been replaced by excitement. He jumped up a little, like an energized kid, the same joy clearly in his eyes. “I think so- It moved, didn’t it?! Did you see that! What else do you think I can do?”

Vanya observed the ghostly interaction. Seeing her brother place his hands on air, yet looking like he held something completely solid, it was pretty trippy. “..Was that something new?” She could guess, going by Klaus’ reaction and expression. But maybe he would elaborate a bit, which would be very appreciated.

He looked at her and sat back down, Ben sitting next to him once again. “Yes! When I said we practiced, I didn’t mean we succeeded doing anything like _this_.. I have know idea where it came from.”

“How’s your friend feeling about it?” Trying to include the very present entity, Vanya turned towards the empty chair, sending a warm feeling through Ben’s chest.

His eyes were filled with even more joy, Klaus could only imagine what the reveal would make him feel like. Except, he didn’t really have to keep imagining, he could tell her, make it official. The thought of it going wrong still terrified him, but Vanya reacting so casually to something so paranormal really eased his nerves. He exhaled slowly.

“Our _brother_.. Not just a friend..”

-

Having zoned out for a bit after going through the book for over hours, Five woke up from his short, unintentional nap. It was still pretty early, so Five was surprised when he found out all of his siblings were gone. Well, surprise was one word for it. Vanya should’ve been home, the others were supposed to watch her. It didn’t matter whether they could be with her right now, they clearly couldn’t follow simple instructions, something he was reminded of every day since his return.

It took him little to no effort to find Allison, Diego and Luther. Blinking about four times, he found them crossing a street. The sudden blink catching them off guard.

“Morning.” He told them, hands behind his back.

Luther cleared his throat. He wasn’t sure if Five was angry, but it felt very likely. “Oh, hey.. What brings you here at a time like this?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Five’s tone had a subtle hint of irritation. “Where’s Vanya?”

“..We’re working on that.” Diego joined in, not looking at his younger, older brother directly. “We got this though, don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it? Are you out of your mind?! If something sets her off it could-”

Allison snapped her fingers, catching his attention. _‘WE CAN’T CHANGE WHAT HAPPENED NOW, LET’S JUST FIND HER’_

“No, you _especially_ were supposed to watch her. She didn’t sleep in your room because you wanted a damn slumber party, right?” The longer the conversation went on, the more he wished he was never adopted.

Luther attempted to ease some of the tension. “Five, calm down. Allison is right, I think if we-”

“None of you have read the book, keep all those useless opinions to yourself until after you find her.” Five cut him off. He took a deep breath, if maybe his siblings would just take his word for once, it would save everyone a lot of time.

Unfortunately Diego wasn’t about to let that happen. “Then why don’t you tell us about the book?! If it’s that important, you shouldn’t keep it from us!”

“Fine.” Five stood up straight and turned to Diego, a serious and now very irritated expression on his face. “Vanya’s so powerful I have reason to believe she would’ve caused the apocalypse. Happy? Is that what you wanted to hear? That you lost the bomb?”

The group was left in silence. How did Vanya go from the ordinary sibling, to the reason the world would end. They couldn’t wrap their heads around it. Allison turned around as she felt tears beginning to well up in her eyes, the guilt she felt of losing Vanya worsening drastically. 

Luther was the first to speak up, putting a hand on Allison’s shoulder to show her some sort of support. “..Don’t call Vanya that.”

“Like it or not, that’s what she is. Which is why she needs our help. Now, we can’t give that to her if we don’t know where she is. Does that make sense to you?”

It was at that moment a loud noise erupted from about a street away, causing the ground to shake. People everywhere fell to the ground, the few that didn’t lose consciousness covered their ears, it was a horribly loud scream, almost. That was the only thing it could even be remotely compared to, though when you’d try to listen to it, it simply devolved into a ringing in your ears.

The four Umbrella members were far from safe from the surge themselves, they had to force their ears shut as well. Just as Five was about to pass out, it stopped. At least now they knew where their sister could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might've overdone it a lil with all the information and events in this chapter, but it gave me a good setup for the next few chapters so we'll see how it goes. At least it's longer-


	5. Basically ground zero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make a long personal story a whole lot shorter, I had some trouble with finishing up my schoolwork, but now I'm officially done with it. Albeit, not the way I would've preferred- But I got more free time, plus more motivation to write. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who has waited for the next chapter my lil story, it really makes writing feel a lot more exciting and rewarding. Also can't believe this story is about to/has hit 1000 hits, it's my first story on here to reach that and it honestly means a lot to me! Thank you! <3

If Ben could still cry, he would be on the verge of tears, like Vanya was. Her expression started off looking confused, but then her eyes widened, followed by her brows raising. Ben couldn’t tell what exactly she was thinking, he just noticed her eyes getting shinier, hinting at tears. “Is she okay..?”

Klaus sat there in silence, he felt like he had ruined the mood entirety. This was already further than he’d ever gotten before, which also meant he had no idea where to go from here. “..Do you want to ask him something?”

“Is he.. Is he actually here?” Vanya’s voice was shaky. “..Are you sure?”

“Yeah, yeah- He’s dead, I can _see_ the dead. It all adds up, right?” He said jokingly, it would either ease the tension or make him look insensitive. Those odds sounded fine to him, especially after dropping the biggest bomb he could’ve dropped.

The tears now rolled over Vanya’s cheeks as her breathing hitched. “I.. I don’t know what to say..”

“Ask him anything! He won’t mind. In fact, if you address him directly again he might start ghost weeping or something.” Klaus laughed as Ben smacked his shoulder. “Go on.”

“Shit.. What do you ask your deceased brother?” She exhaled, trying to calm her breathing. “..I don't know.. where to start..” Turning towards the chair, she tried to smile. “How have you been.?”

It wasn’t exactly eye contact, Vanya basically looked at Ben’s chin, but it felt close enough to excite him. “..A lot better now, honestly.” It felt weird that his sister wouldn’t be able to hear him, but he trusted his brother to get everything over to her correctly, sort of. “I’ve really missed you, Vanya..”

The long pause that followed was enough for Klaus to realize it was his turn to talk. “Ben said that.. He feels a lot better now, and that he missed you.” While he spoke Vanya didn’t look away from the chair, but he didn’t mind.

“I’ve missed you too.. It's been so long..” Vanya wiped her eye with her sleeve, this really was a surreal moment. In all the years Ben was gone she’d never imagined talking with him again, even taken Klaus’ powers in account, as mean as that sounds. Then a nasty thought made its way into her head. “Have- Have you.. Do you know about my book.?”

“..Oh. I read it.. But I’m not mad about it? I mean, I was- But..” Ben looked at Klaus, as if he would just take this one, bring it in a better way. The longer he talked, the more nervous Vanya could get, he preferred to make this fast. “I don’t want her to feel bad about it..”

Klaus sighed. “He read it with me, but he’s okay with it.”

“..Really? Even his part..?” Since Vanya’s eyes were already watery from her previous tears she didn’t _look_ more upset, but she could’ve been. At this point she had made eye contact with Klaus once again. “Like, I know it was bad. He doesn’t have to deny that.”

“He doesn’t, but he’s not mad anymore. Ben would like to focus on that, okay?” Both of his siblings were surprised Klaus handled it with such ease, and honestly, so was he. “Let’s move on before I say anything else.”

Small talk went back and forth, from tiny questions to bigger issues they wanted to discuss. But because nobody wanted a tense environment, they tried to stick to happy bits as much as possible. “He asked how your violin thingy is working out for you.” Klaus passed over before taking a sip of orange juice.

A smile spread across Vanya’s face, she’d be lying if she said talking about anything related to her career didn’t excite her. “Really well, actually- I was promoted to first chair recently.”

“Which means.? Wait don’t tell me- The person that sits in the front? Kinda important?”

“Did Ben tell you that?” She laughed, but Klaus looked so proud of himself that it seemed less likely. “Yeah, it’s pretty good. I actually have my first big performance-”

The pause started out feeling a little misplaced, but it transitioned to full on uncomfortable as it continued. Klaus had to address this, just in case. “..You alright there Vanny?”

“Klaus, what date is it today?”

“Second of April”

“I’ve just been informed it’s April second. Why?”

Vanya hoped she had misheard him somehow, because it couldn’t be the second yet, it’d she was supposed to be there _yesterday_ , which wasn’t possible. “..Are you sure?” Her eye twitched slightly as her shoulders slumped, reality began to set in. “I was going to perform yesterday..”

“So why didn’t you- Oh..” Thankfully he didn’t make Vanya explain herself, she looked like just one wrong comment could shatter her, and probably the windows. “You’ll get another shot though, right?”

“I.. I don’t know.” She actually had to think about this herself, making herself more anxious. “What kind of consequences does missing your first performance as first chair have? They replaced the last person who didn’t show up and those were just rehearsals!”

Klaus gave Ben a look, hoping he would know how to answer Vanya, but the shrug gave him absolutely nothing. “Can’t you just.. ask? Like we can go there, maybe call or something..”

Her hands slowly formed into fists, but her breathing didn’t seem to change yet. “What am I supposed to tell them? My brother locked me in the basement and we lost track of time?”

“That’s what happened though.”

“They don’t have to know that!”

Klaus inhaled a bunch of air and held his breath for about five seconds, forcing himself to think before exhaling with a clap of his hands. “Look, what’s the worst that can happen?”

“I can think of a few things.” Ben answered for him, letting out an annoyed sigh.

Of course, he was completely ignored by his brother. “I think you got this.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, totally!”

-

Dust was practically everywhere, the restaurant replaced with nothing but ruins, taking halves of the two surrounding buildings with it, which created some sort of gap in the block. The street itself wasn’t off much better, as it was split open in various places. Five teleported nearby, the thick air almost sending him into a coughing fit. He moved his arm in front of his nose and mouth to shield them with his sleeve, but that still left the dust blowing into his eyes. It vaguely reminded him of the dust storms he had to endure in the apocalypse, so this wouldn’t stop him from searching the destroyed building.

“Vanya?!” He called out as he maneuvered his way through the massive pieces of rubble. Sure enough, a tiny figure laid there, untouched by any of the damage. As Five approached, he indeed recognized her as his sister, she looked fine, unharmed, thankfully.

As their three siblings arrived at the scene so did the ambulances, police and firefighters. The lights on top of their cars looked crazy through the dust, it was enough to give anyone a headache. As their search for survivors began Five had to blink Vanya out of the building to avoid any suspicions, he messed up her hair a bit so she actually looked like she had been in the accident.

Luther took it from there, carrying her in his arms. It left his face exposed but that didn’t matter to him right now. “We should get out of here before they start asking questions.” The sound of his voice was drawn out by the loud combinations of sirens, but his siblings had the same idea so words were barely necessary.

Narrowly escaping confrontation with any of the people nearby, the Umbrella idiots made their way back home with their sister. Having Vanya unconscious around them was becoming a reoccurring thing that none of them enjoyed.

Allison began dusting her coat off as she watched Luther place their sister on the couch once again. A cloud managed to hit her in the face, forcing out a painful sounding coughing noise.

Luther was at her side in seconds, placing a hand on her back. “You better have mom take a look at you, that sounded pretty bad.”

She shook her head, nodding towards Vanya’s sleeping form after.

“Allison, we’re all used to this by now, you don’t need to stay by Vanya’s side all the time We got this.” Diego scoffed. He had taken his jacket back from his sister, somehow without waking her. These power naps were proving to be pretty strong to force her into such a deep sleep over and over again.

Five cleared his throat, forcing his siblings to focus on him instead. “It really doesn’t matter who watches her, all of you would probably lose her again anyway.”

“So why don’t you watch her?”

“I will.”

“Great, so Five will stay here with Vanya. Allison can go to mom. Problem solved, good talk.” Diego proceeded to walk up the stairs, leaving the rest to take care of things on their own.

“Wow, thanks Diego. Input as helpful as ever.” Luther shook his head. “He’s right though, you can get checked now. Do you want me to come along?”

Allison nodded with a small smile on her face.

This left Five and Vanya, probably how he preferred it at this point. “We might as well get you chipped at this point.. If we lose you again something even worse than what happened today could-”

He was interrupted by his sister beginning to shift slightly.

-

“How nice of you to stop by.” She sucked some sauce off of her thumb before speaking again. “Sit down, I ordered greek for a change.”

Cha-Cha had entered the gross motel room with a defeated look on her face and a burnt smell to her, seeing the Handler sitting on one of the beds with a load of food was the last thing she needed right now. “Ma’am, I-”

She held up a finger. “No, no. Sit first, we have quite some things we need to discuss. But I’m sure you are aware of that, judging by the lack of partner alone, I doubt I have to remind you of that.” While the Handler had a smile on her face, she was everything but pleased.

“No you don’t, ma’am.” Cha-Cha sighed before sitting on the empty bed.

“Where to start with you.. You lost your briefcase which was then used to alter time, only to get destroyed afterwards. In turn, that forced you to stay in the current time period after your contract had been canceled. And now, to top it all off, you destroy an innocent donut shop, and for what? All it did was cause unnecessary commotion and a bunch of paperwork for the people back at the headquarters. Really, Cha-Cha.. I’m disappointed in you. _Very_ disappointed, actually.” She swung around her plastic work wildly as she spoke. “Now, if you had at least brought Hazel back with you it would’ve been a whole different story, but obviously you didn’t.”

The assassin shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Hearing all of these things from the Handler herself sure hit different, made everything more real. Though it did leave her with some questions. “I wasn’t aware Hazel’s absence would be a problem for you.”

“And why wouldn’t it? It’s not every day we lose one of our best. Quite upsetting, don’t you think? I sure am upset about it.”

“We got the order to kill each other, directly from you.”

“But I never-” She paused, attempting to recall how the situation could have played out. It resulted in almost twenty seconds of total silence. “Oh.. OH, he’s _good_.”

Cha-Cha was left with a confused look on her face, she was already stressed, all these half sentences were _not_ helping that. “I don’t follow.”

“Of course you don’t.” The Handler smirked. “I never sent those messages, Five did! That’s interesting though, killing both of you, _very_ interesting.” Taking a look at Cha-Cha’s face was enough to tell her what she was thinking, she wanted to know what came next for her, a valid thing to wonder. “Listen, I can excuse the whole lack of a partner now, consider it a miscommunication. But that doesn’t leave you free of any faults, but I’m sure you understand that.”

The assassin could feel a chill running up her spine, she could either lose her job or get killed on the spot, neither sounded very favorable. “If there’s anything I could do to prove my worth at this company, make it up to you-”

“Funny you should mention that, actually. I did have something in mind.” The Handler stood up with a wink and a smile, then began pacing around the room. “I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s April second, we’re not standing on a burning planet, which would make you think the apocalypse is off. And for good reason, anyone would assume that, right?”

“Well-”

She put her finger in Cha-Cha’s face, getting all close and personal with her. “You’d be wrong. The way I see it, when something is meant to happen, it will. Our job might be making that happen in one way or another, but every now and then, life finds its own way.” She backed off a bit, giving her employee some breathing room. “Quite fascinating, don’t you think? As if the universe itself is.. Supporting us in this.”

“Does that apply here?”

“In a way, yes. A bunch of emotionally stunted adults with powers? A recipe for disaster, if you ask me. We’ve been set on Vanya Hargreeves for some time now, but all of them have shown potential to mess up in a variety of ways.” Her pacing continued. “What I’m trying to say is quite simple, we have another shot at this. In a few days another opportunity will present itself, and I need you to be ready.”

“What exactly do you want me to do?”

“Simply keep an eye on the Hargreeves family until further notice, we’ll get back to you once we’ve figured out the best course of action.”

“..And what about Hazel?”

“You’ll be taking on this assignment on your own. We’ll be taking care of Hazel ourselves.”

-

Grace’s delicate hands placed the fresh bandage on Allison’s throat, right after having cleaned up the wound a bit. “You should be more careful going outside like that, take your time to rest and heal.”

“It was an emergency..” Luther responded for her.

“An emergency that required all of you to enter a dust storm?” She smiled as she picked up a grain of sand off of Luther’s jacket, which he had yet to clean. Then turned back to Allison. “I must advise you to stay in bed for a while, dear. We won’t be able to start your vocal training unless you’ve healed up a bit more.”

At the mention of her vocal training Allison’s expression shifted. Of course she wanted to talk again, but she had been so caught up with everything surrounding Vanya that she hadn’t taken it into account in any of her decision making. _‘I’LL REST’_

“You better.” Grace offered Allison a hand to help her up. “Now, get yourself in bed. I’ll bring you something cold for your throat later.”

Allison smiled and got up, giving her mother a hug before exiting the makeshift hospital, closely followed by Luther who gave her a nod of thanks.

“Have you had the chance to take a look at miss Vanya yet?” Pogo asked as he entered the room shortly after Allison and Luther had left.

Grace had just started putting away the supplies she used on Allison, she didn’t bother turning towards him. “A quick one yesterday, but most of her siblings were present.”

“I see.. Did you talk to her?”

“Barely, I’m afraid.”

“I just want you to be prepared in case she comes to you with questions. Or any of them, for that matter.” He didn’t put it past any of the siblings to go to their mother for answers rather than him, as long as she would communicate with him he didn’t see any problems with it yet though.

“I am, don’t you worry.” After putting the last of the things away, then looked at Pogo and smiled. “Whatever I’ll tell them, I’ll bring it properly.”

“..I know, Grace. Thank you.”

“Now if that’s all, I still have some things to attend to.”

“Ah, yes- Master Five is beginning a training session soon, you’ll need to be ready for a potential patient.” If he knew them even a little bit at this point, Pogo figured there was a chance of anyone involved getting hurt. Whether that meant a little cut or straight up brain damage, remained to be seen.

“Noted.”

-

Five didn’t look at her as he placed the glasses in formation on the table, he’d try to replicate his father’s latest session with Vanya before trying anything new. Not that she’d probably remember those days, but it just felt logical. “You gave us quite the scare earlier.”

“Yeah..” Vanya tugged on her sleeves as she watched her brother. She was experiencing some major deja vu, but couldn’t quite place what was causing it. “I really didn’t mean for any of that to happen.. I-”

“I know, Vanya.” With the last glass in place he turned to her. “We’ll just avoid the street in question and the news for a while. We don’t have to think about it.”

She nodded and stood up from her place on the stairs. “I just can’t shake the feeling I forgot about something.. Like _someone_.?”

“Again, you don’t have to think about that right now. Let’s just focus on this first, okay?” With his voice sounding as gentle as Five could possibly accomplish, he hoped he could help Vanya ignore whatever was currently distracting her.

“Right, yeah.. What do you need me to do?”

“Just stand right there, I’ll be using this tuning fork to make noise, then you use that noise to shatter one of the glasses, starting with this one at your far left.” He held up the fork. “Think you can do that?”

“I mean, doesn’t sound too hard?”

“Great, let’s get started then.”

With a tap against the table the tuning fork rang loudly, the sound filling the whole hall. It wasn’t necessarily loud, just _noticeable_. Vanya closed her eyes as she focused on it. It had to feel like the only sound in the house. Not the various footsteps that caused the floorboards to creak, or the doors opening and closing. Just the tuning fork. It didn’t sound like a challenge going into it, but it proved to be more difficult than Vanya had given it credit for. The harder she tried to grab onto it, the farther it seemed to slip. And just like that, it was quiet again.

Vanya looked at the floor apologetically. “..Sorry, I’m a little distracted.”

“For your first attempt, I think you did fine.” Five sighed. “Think you know what the problem is?”

“Not really? Maybe.. It’s like a combination of the noises in the house? I’m not sure, it's just hard to focus.”

“You want to try again?”

With a firm nod from Vanya the tuning fork hit the side of the table once again, the same noise as before filling the hall once again. Now trying a different approach, she looked at the glass she was instructed to shatter. With all the background noise slowly fading away, nothing should be holding her back from using the sound of the fork.

It started with one of the glasses vibrating, the one on her far left like Five had instructed. But it didn’t shatter. She focused harder, causing it to shake more, but that was all. Why she wasn’t able to perform such a simple task was beyond frustrating to her, the thought of it giving her a headache. Then something finally changed. Another glass joined in, starting with a simple vibration but slowly progressing to the same shaking as the glass next to it. That wasn’t her given task though, it was still _wrong_. Attempting to make it stop only made it worse as another joined in, then another. Without even trying Vanya had managed to affect every glass on the table, plus the table itself soon after, as it started shaking as well. Five took a step back, fully prepared to shield his face if necessary.

“Vanya, try to dial it back a bit..” He told her softly, watching her every move as her hands twitched slightly. “Just one glass, remember?”

No vocal response came from her. Vanya’s dark eyes began losing their color leaving an almost glowing silver-like color behind, calling it intimidating would be an understatement. Five got to experience it first hand as her gaze switched from the glass to him, it was hard for him to break eye contact, so he just didn’t. It was so captivating he barely noticed her skin turning a ghostly pale. The only thing snapping him out of his state was when he noticed the sound of the tuning fork had already stopped, yet Vanya didn’t seem close to done yet. The realization was honestly so fascinating to him that he almost considered hitting the fork against the table again.

“Vanya?” He cautiously stepped closer to her. “Tell me what you hear..”

Her lips parted slowly, her mouth opening before any sound came out. It almost looked like none would, but then she spoke. “ **Nothing.** ”

The words sounded hollow and echoey, it filled the whole room in an instant. Like on command, the glasses shattered loudly, the table breaking into pieces. A gust of wind pushed everything into a different direction away from Vanya, including Five who had to teleport to avoid being knocked into a wall. After all the energy had seemingly been released, her appearance changed back to her usual look, dark eyes and warmer skin.

Much to Vanya’s surprise, Five was beyond excited and supportive. While she was terrified, he paced around the room with something that could be considered a smile on his face. “You held the sound long after it had faded.. Like you _absorbed_ it, or at least the energy it gave you! That’s..”

“Dangerous.” She finished for him while looking down at her shoes, noticing she was trembling slightly. “I could’ve hurt you. What if my power had affected you?”

“But it didn’t, I’m okay. _Everyone_ is okay.” At least that was what he assumed, just because he didn’t hear any screaming. “Listen, this theory is going to be a great help with future training sessions and learning about your powers in general.”

“..Did dad know about this? This _theory_?” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, finally looking up to meet Five’s gaze.

He thought back to the book which was upstairs in his room. “In a way, yes. Though he spent more time calling you a menace in the book than giving a detailed explanation on what he knew so I could be wrong.”

Luther made his way down the stairs, after having heard all the commotion, he just had to check, for his own sanity, honestly. “Everyone okay?” Then, of course, the glass and broken table became visible to him. “Jesus, Five-”

Five just stood there with his hands stuffed into his pockets and a confident look on his face. “We were having a successful training session here.”

“If this was _successful_ , I don’t want to know what you consider _unsuccessful_.” Luther looked at his sister, his brows furrowing slightly. “You alright?”

“Fine, I think..”

Because timing was on their side, like usual, Diego entered the hall as well, obviously taken aback by the mess. “Hey have you guys- What the hell happened in here?”

Luther chuckled, taking it upon himself to answer. “A successful training session, apparently.”

“Successful? Seriously?”

“Can you all shut up about it now? What do you want, Diego?”

“Just came to check if any of you have seen Klaus.”

“Why?”

“His room is empty, no idea since when.” Diego stepped over some broken glass to get closer to where the group was standing, not that stepping in it would harm him in any way since he was wearing shoes and all, he just didn’t feel like breaking any of the pieces and making a bigger mess.

“Does it matter? Klaus can leave whenever he wants, he’s a grown adult.” Just saying it out loud made Luther feel wrong, in a way. “Sort of.”

“Yeah, a recovering drug addicted adult.”

“I remember..” Vanya began, making all heads turn to her. “We were together this morning.. But then the incident-” She stopped as she realized something, causing her eyes to widen and the color to drain from her face. “..He was with me at the restaurant.”

“He was _what_?!” Diego stepped towards her, his expression unreadable. His tone was a mixture of shock, disbelief and a bit of anger. But that didn’t mean all that much considering it was Diego.

“Woah, woah-” Luther put an arm in front of Vanya, shielding her from Diego just in case. He didn’t necessarily expect him to straight up lynch her, but she needed to stay calm to be able to speak, and Diego was _not_ helping with that. “Vanya, are you sure?”

“..Yes. We were there together.”

Diego inhaled a bunch of air and turned around. He walked towards the door without saying anything, kicking a piece of wood out of his way as he approached it.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Five watched him go and took a step closer to Vanya as he noticed her face, the last thing they needed right now was one of her breakdowns. Especially after seeing what she could do, just today.

“I’m going to look for him, obviously.”

“I’m going with you.”

“No.”

“If he’s under all that rubble you’ll need help moving it.” Luther tried to reason with him.

Vanya felt herself go dizzy at the mention of rubble, the thought of Klaus actually still being there, _crushed_ , made her breathing hitch. Dark thoughts began creeping their way into her head, causing her eyes to water. “If he’s under there he’s probably _dead_.”

“No he isn’t, shut up.”

“Diego, calm down.”

“Of course, my mistake- Our brother getting fucking buried is totally okay, not sure what I was even worried about, you’re right. Great job, Five, honestly.” Diego looked at his shorter brother for only a second before turning away from him once again.

“Don’t be like that.” Luther gave him a sympathetic look. He couldn’t blame Diego for getting frustrated, but as long as Vanya was in the room he had to soften the situation, she probably felt bad enough about it already. “The offer still stands, let me go with you.”

Diego took a second to really think, realistically he would definitely need Luther to help him. Another trip with his least favorite brother to go look for his semi favorite brother sounded fair, he just had to suck it up for now. Diego sighed as he opened the door and looked back at Luther. “..You coming or not?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So once again, a lot going on in this one, plot points here and there, but I swear they're all going somewhere lmao- Trying to get the timeline right here, sorry if it gets a little wonky at times.


End file.
